Iran pushes for 15 per cent Asia-Europe transit increase

In order to increase the country's incomes, Iran needs to increase its share of Asia-Europe transits to 15 per cent, deputy head of Iran's Transportation and Fuel Management Committee said on December 9.

"Iran hopes to annually gain $50 billion through the transit of goods and passengers," the ISNA News Agency quoted Amir Jafarpour as saying.

Iranian Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister Davoud Keshavarzian said on December 8 that over 8.096 million tons of goods were transited through Iran in the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21), the IRNA News Agency reported.

"The amount shows a seven per cent increase compared to the same period in the previous year," he said.

"Some 96 per cent of the amount (7.756 million tons) was transited via roads and the other four per cent by rail," Keshavarzian added.

"Transit of goods by road saw an 11 per cent increase compared to the same time in the previous year," he explained.

He went on to note that about 3.584 million tons of transited good were oil products and 4.510 million tons were non-oil products.

"The transited consignments consisted mainly of fuel, construction materials, cotton, home appliances, vehicles, foodstuff and fertilisers," the official noted.

According to Iran's former Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister Shahriar Afandizadeh, over 11.6 million tons of goods were transited through Iran in the past Iranian calendar year, ended March 20. The figure shows a 14.7 per cent rise year on year, he added.

About 10.7 million tons of goods were transited by road and 862,800 tons by rail, showing a respective 16.3 per cent rise and 2.5 per cent fall year on year.

Afandizadeh said that 106 countries transited their goods via Iran. Iraq, China, the UAE, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan transited the highest amount of goods, he noted